Resistance to permethrin alters the gut microbiota of Aedes aegypti

Authors: Muturi, Ephantus; Dunlap, Christopher; SMARTT, CHELSEA - University Of Florida; SHIN, DONGYOUNG - University Of Florida

Submitted to: Scientific Reports
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/21/2021
Publication Date: 7/13/2021
Citation: Muturi, E.J., Dunlap, C.A., Smartt, C.T., Shin, D. 2021. Resistance to permethrin alters the gut microbiota of Aedes aegypti. Scientific Reports. 11. Article 14406. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93725-4.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-93725-4

Interpretive Summary: Insecticide resistance has emerged as one of the major challenges facing vector-borne disease control programs throughout the world. Knowing the mechanisms that enable insects to survive exposure to insecticides can inform development of better strategies for managing insecticide resistance. The microbial communities within the insect body have been shown to play a role in mediating insecticide resistance, but their role in mosquito resistance to insecticides remain poorly understood. As a first step towards long term studies to understand the contribution of microbial communities to mosquito resistance to insecticides, we compared the microbial communities within the guts of mosquitoes that were resistant or susceptible to a commonly used insecticide. Our results show that the guts of the two groups of mosquitoes supported different bacterial communities with different metabolic capabilities. These findings demonstrate an association between the gut microbial communities and insecticide resistance in a medically important mosquito species and provides the foundation for future studies to investigate the contribution of these microbial communities to insecticide resistance development in mosquitoes.

Technical Abstract: Insecticide resistance has emerged as a persistent threat to the fight against vector-borne diseases, and the microbial communities within the insect body may contribute to insecticide resistance. We used high throughput next-generation sequencing to compare the gut microbiota of permethrin-selected (PS) strain of Aedes aegypti relative to the parent (KW) strain from Key West, Florida. Bacterial richness but not diversity was significantly higher in PS strain compared to KW strain. The two mosquito strains also differed in their gut microbial composition. The main bacterial taxa contributing to dissimilarity between the two mosquito strains included Cutibacterium spp., Corynebacterium spp., Citricoccus spp., Leucobacter spp., Acinetobacter spp., Dietzia spp., and Anaerococcus spp. which were more abundant in PS strain than in KW strain and Aquabacterium spp., Methylobacterium spp., Flavobacterium spp., Lactobacillus spp., unclassified Burkholderiaceae and unclassified Nostocaceae which were more abundant in KW strain compared to PS strain. PS strain was enriched with propionate metabolizers, selenate reducers, and xylan, chitin, and chlorophenol degraders while KW strain was enriched with sulfur oxidizers, sulfur metabolizers, sulfate reducers and naphthalene and aromatic hydrocarbons degraders. These findings demonstrate an association between the gut microbiota and insecticide resistance in an important vector species and sets the foundation for future studies to investigate the contribution of gut microbiota to evolution of insecticide resistance in disease vectors.